Last year, we reported that the state-owned German bank KfW was planning to issue a blockchain-based digital bond. This week the bank shared a few more details. Given its shareholders, it aims to demonstrate digitalization and increase the profile of crypto securities, the German legal term for securities issued on a blockchain.
The bond will be issued under the German Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) during the summer of 2024, with Cashlink as the registrar. Under the law, the registar in some ways takes the place of a central securities depository (CSD) with fewer requirements. As previously announced, Union Investment will be the anchor investor, as it has been in many of the early European digital bond issuances.
KfW has put together a bookrunner consortium consisting of DZ Bank, Deutsche Bank, LBBW and Bankhaus Metzler, which all have blockchain experience. DZ Bank will also be the collective registered holder of the bond. The bond settlement will be executed in the traditional fashion.
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